Southampton City Council fact sheet
People who are vulnerable and are unable to protect themselves against significant harm or exploitation due to a physical disability, mental ill-health, a learning disability, age or frailty.
People who need care and support need to trust and depend on everyone they rely on for help. Abuse is anything that harms another person and might include:
physical abuse such as hitting, pushing, locking someone in a room
verbal abuse such as shouting and/or swearing
emotional abuse such as bullying, taunting or humiliating someone
sexual abuse such as inappropriate touching, forcing someone to take part in any sexual act against their will
financial abuse such as misusing, withholding or taking someone’s money
neglect such as not providing necessary food, care or medicine
discrimination such as ill treatment due to the person’s age, gender, disability, religious beliefs or race which may include harassment
Abuse can happen anywhere and can be carried out by anyone such as:
family, friends, neighbours
paid staff, carers, volunteers
other service users or tenants
strangers
Don’t assume that someone else is doing something about the situation.
if anyone is injured get a doctor or ambulance
contact your local adult services office and inform them of your concerns, what happened and any action you have taken
if you think a criminal offence has been committed, contact the police straight away
Working with other organisations, adult services will find out as much as possible about what has happened. We will do a number of things which might include:
talking to you and other people involved to find out what has happened
planning what to do to protect the person being abused
supporting the person and their carers through the process
being available to offer support in the future
If we suspect a crime the police will carry out an investigation, working alongside other agencies.
A leaflet for people with learning disabilities called Keeping people safe from abuse is available from adult services.
Adult services
During office hours contact your local office:
Southampton Tel: 023 8083 3003
Portsmouth Tel: 023 9268 0810
Hampshire Tel: 0845 603 5630
Outside office hours
adult services operate an out of hours service for urgent problems that happen outside normal office hours. The emergency duty teams can be reached on:
Southampton City Council Tel: 023 8083 3344
Portsmouth City Council Tel: 023 9268 0810
Hampshire County Council Tel: 0845 600 4555
Care Quality Commission Tel: 03000 616161
Police contact your local police station or Tel: 0845 045 45 45
Useful contact numbers
Elder abuse response helpline – For advice and support Tel: 080 8808 8141
Voice UK – support for people with learning disabilities who have been abused Tel: 0845 1228695
Respond helpline – for people with learning difficulties Tel: 0808 8080700
Saneline – help and advice for people with a mental illness Tel: 0845 7678000
Rape Crisis – provide advice, information and counselling services for men and women who have been raped or sexually abused at anytime in their lives Tel: 023 8063 6313 Minicom: 023 8063 6314
Contact Name
Last updated: 26 July 2010